Method and System for Managing Interactive Communications Campaigns

ABSTRACT

A web-based solution through which business entities create and manage communications campaigns, such as campaigns that afford target recipients an opportunity to be connected to a third party call center. A web interface is provided to enable a business entity customer to create a set of one or more rules that, when triggered during the campaign, cause the solution to take certain control actions in real-time, based on campaign performance. Preferably, this campaign performance is measured indirectly, i.e. without requiring a direct connection to an on-premises call center ACD. The interface provides the business entity customer with a convenient and easy-to-use display that identifies any rule that has been (or may be getting ready to be) triggered, together with a then current status of the campaign. The system takes a control action (e.g., campaign suspension, adjusting an outbound call rate, or the like) when a customer-configurable rule is triggered.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field

The subject matter herein relates generally to methods of and systemsfor managing interactive communication campaigns over a computernetwork, such as the Internet.

2. Description of the Related Art

It is known in the prior art to provide a web-based hosted solutionthrough which business entities create and manage interactive ornotification communications campaigns. An example of an interactivecommunications campaign is a telephone campaign to determine whether atarget recipient desires to transfer a credit card balance to a newaccount, a campaign to remind a recipient that a credit card payment isdue and to offer the recipient an opportunity to speak with a customerrepresentative concerning any payment issues, or the like. The hostedsolution typically is implemented as an application (or “managed”)service provider. One or more business entities (“customers”) thatdesire to use the service typically register and access the servicethrough an on-line (e.g., web-based) portal. In one representative usescenario, the managed service provider entity provides outboundtelemarketing services on behalf of participating customers. Thecampaign typically is provisioned by the customer. Thus, for example,using a web-based interface, a participating customer defines a scriptfor the campaign, imports a set of contacts, and defines one or moreparameters that govern how the campaign is to be run. At a designatedtime, the service provider initiates the campaign, e.g., by providingthe contacts to a set of telephone servers that set-up and manage thetelephone calls to the targets of the campaign. During a given outboundcall, as noted above, a recipient may be afforded an option to connectto a third party contact center, e.g., to speak to the customerrepresentative. In such implementations, the hosted solution typicallyis integrated directly with the call center's on-premises automatic calldistributor (ACD). The direct connection is used by the hosted solutionto obtain information about contact center performance that, in turn,may be used to adjust one or more service parameters.

While having a direct connection between the hosted solution and thecall center ACD may appear to be desirable, it significantly increasesthe time needed to deploy the managed service, and it presents complexand sometimes costly integration and operational issues.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This disclosure describes a web-based hosted solution (a managed serviceor system) through which business entities create and managecommunications campaigns, such as interactive campaigns that affordtarget recipients an opportunity to be connected to a third party call,center. A web interface is provided to enable a business entity customerto create a set of one or more rules that, when triggered during thecampaign, cause the managed system to take certain control actions inreal-time, based on campaign performance. As compared to the prior art,this “campaign performance” is measured indirectly, i.e. withoutrequiring a direct connection to an on-premises call center ACD. Rather,preferably all information about the call center's performance duringthe campaign is derived from information (gathered by the hostedsolution) about calls delivered, or attempted to be delivered, to thecall center. In effect, the call center performance is inferred, andthis performance is then exposed to the business entity customer througha web-based interface. In particular, the interface provides thebusiness entity customer with a convenient and easy-to-use display thatidentifies any rule that has been triggered, together with a thencurrent status of the campaign. The system is programmed to take a givencontrol action (e.g., campaign suspension, adjusting an outbound callrate, or the like) when a customer-configurable rule is triggered. Thus,in one representative example, the system, recognizing that a hang-uprate at the call center has reached a customer-configurable threshold,suspends the campaign. In another example, the system recognizes thatthe rate of calls being answered by the call center has reached athreshold; as a result, the outbound call rate is adjusted. The customerdisplay provides the status, preferably using a “traffic light signal”metaphor, with a green light representing that calls are currentlywithin an established range, a yellow light representing that a callrate is being actively managed (e.g., the rate has been adjusted inresponse to a rule's threshold being reached or exceeded), and a redlight indicating that a campaign has been paused. In either case, thesystem preferably makes these adjustments and displays the currentstatus information without actually having a view into what resource orother issues might be impacting the call center's performance. Inaddition, the system may be programmed to provide the business entitycustomer with a notification (e.g., an email or other alert) whenever arule that it has defined has been occurred.

According to another feature, the system optionally uses historical callrates to prime a call rate engine before initiating a current callcampaign.

The foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinent features of theinvention. These features should be construed to be merely illustrative.Many other beneficial results can be attained by applying the disclosedinvention in a different manner or by modifying the invention as will bedescribed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a service provider infrastructure forimplementing a managed communications campaign service according to thepresent invention;

FIGS. 2A-2B illustrate how an interactive communications campaign iscreated and managed in the service provider infrastructure illustratedin FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 illustrates a web page that is exported to a business entity bythe service provider infrastructure to enable the business entity todefine a set of one or more default rules that are used by one or moresub-campaigns;

FIG. 4 illustrates a web page that is exported to a business entity bythe service provider infrastructure to enable the business entity tomonitor the progress of issues that have been specified by the rulesusing the display interface of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 illustrates the web page in FIG. 4 after a user has selected aShow All Issues link;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating the rules-based management engineof the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 illustrates a representative service provider or systemarchitecture, which in the preferred embodiment is implemented in oracross one or more data centers. A data center typically hasconnectivity to the Internet. The system provides a web-based hostedsolution through which business entities create and managecommunications campaigns. Campaigns may be interactive ornon-interactive. Representative campaigns include, without limitation,account renewal campaigns, balance transfer or consolidation offercampaigns, billing issue campaigns, credit card activation campaigns,fraud alert campaigns, payment or past due reminder campaigns, phone orcustomer survey campaigns, debt recovery campaigns, late payment withright party verification campaigns, payment reminder with direct connectto call center campaigns, appointment reminder campaigns, welcome callcampaigns, account renewal campaigns, affinity cross-sell/rewardsprogram campaigns, crisis management/disaster recovery campaigns, newproduct offer campaigns, inquiry/web follow-up campaigns, contractrenewal campaigns, service availability notification campaigns,promotional offer campaigns, service delivery confirmation campaigns,and the like. The particular type of campaign is not a limitation orfeature of the invention.

A business entity user has a machine such as a workstation or notebookcomputer. Typically, a business entity user accesses the serviceprovider architecture by opening a web browser on the machine to a URLassociated with a service provider domain. The user then authenticatesto the managed service in the usual manner, e.g., by entry of a usernameand password. The connection between the business entity machine and theservice provider infrastructure may be encrypted or otherwise secure,e.g., via SSL, or the like. Although connectivity via thepublicly-routed Internet is typical, the business entity may connect tothe service provider infrastructure over any local area, wide area,wireless, wired, private or other dedicated network. As seen in FIG. 1,the service provider architecture 100 comprises an IP switch 102, a setof one or more web server machines 104, a set of one more applicationserver machines 106, a database management system 108, and a set of oneor more telephony server machines 110. A representative web servermachine 104 comprises commodity hardware (e.g., Intel-based), anoperating system such as Linux, and a web server such as Apache 2.x. Arepresentative application server machine 106 comprises commodityhardware, Linux, and an application server such as WebLogic 8.1. Thedatabase management system 108 may be implemented as an Oracle databasemanagement package running on Solaris. A representative telephony servermachine is an application server having one or more PSTN, VoIP and/orvoice processing cards that provide interconnectivity fortelephone-based calling applications. A representative card is a CG 6000(or variant) series available from NMS Communications, Inc. Typically, avoice processing card has a given number (e.g., 4) T-1 lines connectedthereto. In a high volume call environment, there may be several webserver machines, several application server machines, and a large numberof telephony server machines. Although not shown in detail, theinfrastructure may include a name service, other load balancingappliances, other switches, and the like. Each machine typicallycomprises sufficient disk and memory, as well as input and outputdevices. The software environment on each machine includes a Javavirtual machine (JVM) if control programs are written in Java.Generally, the web servers 104 handle incoming business entityprovisioning requests, and they export a management interface that isdescribed in more detail below. The application servers 106 manage thebasic functions of generating campaign scripts, managing contacts, andexecuting campaigns. The telephony servers 110 handle alltelephony-related functions including, without limitation, executingoutbound calls and forwarding calls to a contact center. The particularhardware and software implementation details described herein are merelyfor illustrative purposes are not meant to limit the scope of thepresent invention.

The contact center typically is owned, operated or managed by a thirdparty, although this is not a requirement. A representative contactcenter is a third party call center having automatic call distribution(ACD) functions. Such technologies are well-known and are outside thescope of the present invention.

Using the service provider infrastructure, a business entity can create,execute and manage a campaign. Typically, a campaign is a completeseries of calls to a contact list using one or more sub-campaigns thatuse a given script. A sub-campaign typically is a single pass of callsthrough a contact list. A script is what determines what will happenduring a phone call. Typically, a script is formatted as XML andspecifies a sequence of audio prompts that are played and what happenswhen the recipient takes certain actions such as pressing a button onthe phone or speaking a response. A campaign need not comprise one ormore sub-campaigns, but may simply comprise a single set of calls on acontact list. One or more contact lists are stored in a contactdatabase, and typically a contact list comprises a set of contacts. Acontact typically is an individual in the contact database. A contactcan include home, work or cell numbers, a client identifier, an emailaddress, or the like. Also, contacts typically include first name, lastname, company and other information. With reference to FIGS. 2A-2B, abusiness entity connects to the service provider, authenticates, andthen uses one or more applications to create; execute and manage thecampaign. These applications execute on the application server machinesand operate in association with one or more databases that are supportedwithin the database management system. These applications include, forexample, a contact management application 202, a campaign managementengine 204, a scheduling engine 206, and a scripting engine 208. Thecontact management application 202 handles the receipt and storage ofthe contact list(s) uploaded (e.g., via FTP) to the system by or onbehalf of the business entity. The scripting engine 208 handles thecreation and managing of the campaign scripts, using instructionsentered by or on behalf of the business entity via a web-basedinterface. The campaign management engine 204 manages the campaign byinteroperating with the scheduling engine 206, which in turninteroperates with the telephony servers 205 to execute the campaign.The business entity can evaluate or monitor the campaign from summary,detail and/or custom reports generated by a reporting engine application210. Notification campaigns are executed using email servers 212 and SMS(or MMS) servers 214.

As also illustrated in FIGS. 2A-2B, after connecting an outbound call toa target recipient 216, the recipient may elect to be connected to thecontact center 218 (typically a third party call center). According to afeature of this disclosure as will be described, the system obtainsinformation about the contact center's performance during a givencommunications campaign, preferably without requiring a directconnection between the infrastructure and a contact center's on-premisesACD. This enables the managed service provider to integrate with bothits business entity customers and with their associated contact centerenvironments rapidly and efficiently. As will be seen, theinterconnectivity between the managed service provider and the contactcenter is “inferred” from how calls that originate from the serviceprovider to the target recipients (who have expressed an interest inbeing connected to the contact center) are actually handled. This“indirect” connectivity is illustrated in FIG. 2 by the “AutoManage™engine” 220. AutoManage™ is a service mark of Soundbite Communications,Inc., the assignee of this application. It is used here merely as ashorthand reference to the basic functionality, which can be provided insoftware as a set of software instructions executable on a processor.FIG. 6 illustrates the function of the engine in more detail. Inparticular, as seen there, the managed service infrastructure 600comprises a rule base 602 that is defined through the web interface 604by the one or more business entities 606 a-n. One or more call centers608 are associated with the managed service. A historical data store 612stores the call rates that were generated as a result of one or morecampaigns or sub-campaigns. The AutoManage™ engine (reference numeral220 in FIGS. 2A-2B and reference number 610 in FIG. 6) is responsiblefor dispatching calls at an appropriate rate while ensuring that allcustomer-requested rule parameters (as described below) are honored.Examples of such parameters include: number of agents available at thecall center, maximum hold time at the call center, client abandon rateprior to speaking to a call center, number of bad numbers reached on theoutbound dial, and so forth. Generally, for a given customer campaign orsub-campaign, the engine 220 decides on an initial call dispatch ratebased on the customer-requested parameters (and, optionally, onhistorical data from like campaigns or sub-campaigns). Once the campaignor sub-campaign, as the case may be, starts running, the engine 220monitors the parameters and ensures that they remain within tolerance.If an identified parameter exceeds the customer-defined value, then asystem action rule (e.g., adjusting the call dispatch rate, suspendingthe calls, or the like) is applied and any customer notificationrequested is issued. Preferably, once a Problem rule has fired, theengine 220 continues to monitor the parameter and periodically eitheradditionally reapplies the Problem rule (if the problem persists) orapplies a Solution rule if the problem appears to be rectified. AProblem rule in this context means that the call rate is being adjusteddownward (to slow the campaign), and a Solution rule means that the callrate is being adjusted upward (to speed up the campaign, typically aftera Problem rule has been applied).

The use of historical call rate adjustment information to “prime” theAutoManage engine for a current campaign or sub-campaign is not requiredbut provides improved performance. Using this technique, the systemprovides more stable initial operation, as well as improved dynamicresponse to changing conditions during the campaign.

According to this disclosure, a web-based interface is provided toenable a business entity customer to create a set of one or moremanagement rules that, when triggered during the campaign, cause theinfrastructure (and, in particular, certain control applicationstherein) to take certain control actions in real-time, preferably basedon campaign performance. The following provides additional detailsregarding this rule definition feature, sometimes referred to herein asAutoManage™. In particular, FIG. 3 illustrates a representative web page300 that is served to a business entity by the service providerinfrastructure to enable the business entity to define a set of one ormore default rules that are used in a campaign (comprising one or moresub-campaigns). The particular layout and format of the page is notmeant to be taken to limit the scope of the present invention. In thisembodiment, the page 300 is separated into two (2) primary sections; anAlert Issues section 302, and a Call Center Issues section 304. As canbe seen, one or more “rules” are associated with each section, and eachrule is defined by one or more control parameters that are configurableusing a set of associated drop boxes. Any other convenient GUI technique(fill-in fields, selectable radio buttons, or the like) may be used todefine the rule parameters. Each rule also has associated System Action,which is a high level action that is implemented when the rule istriggered. In this embodiment, when Alert Issue rules are triggered, theassociated System Action is an adjustment of a call rate. When certainCall Center rules are triggered, the associated System Action is anadjustment of a call rate; when certain other Call Center rules aretriggered, the associated System Action pauses or “suspends” thecampaign or sub-campaign.

Thus, an illustrated Alert Issue rule is a Bad Number rate, which is thenumber of incidents the system detects a bad or invalid number whenattempting to contact to the call center. In this example, the user hasconfigured the Bad Number rate rule to reduce the call rate by 25% if atany time 100 out of the last 400 call attempts (25%) fail to connect dueto a bad (invalid) phone number; conversely, the call rate is increasedby 10% whenever 100 out of the last 105 call attempts (>95%)successfully connect to a valid phone number. Of course, these aremerely representative settings. Another Alert Issue rule is a NotConnected rate rule, and various default values for this rule are alsoillustrated. A representative Call Center Issue rule is Hold Time, whichis the average time that recipients are on hold at the call center. Inthis example, the user has configured the rule to reduce the outboundcall rate by 20% whenever the average hold time for the 5 most recentinbound calls exceed 60 seconds. For example, if the last 5 inboundcalls are put on hold by the call center for 45, 80, 75, 50 and 70seconds, respectively, the average hold time is 64 seconds, and (in thisexample) the outbound call rate would be adjusted down by 20%.Conversely, with the illustrated settings, the outbound call rate isincreased by 10% whenever the average hold time for the previous 5inbound calls drops below 30 seconds. For example, if the hold time forthe last 5 callers is 20, 0, 40, 20 and 10 seconds, respectively, theaverage is 18 seconds, and (in this example) the outbound call ratewould be increased by 10%. Once again, these are merely illustrativesettings. Other Call Center Issue rules are illustrated as well, andthese include a Busy Rate rule (a number of incidents that a Busy ratewas detected by the system when attempting to connect to the callcenter), a No answer rate rule (a number of incidents that no answer wasdetected by the system when attempting to connect to the call center), aContact abandoned rate rule (a number of incidents that the recipient(the contact) hangs up during hold), and an Error rate rule (a number ofincidents that telephony errors were detected by the system whenattempting to connect to the call center). The Call Center Issue rulesthat trigger a pause or suspension of the campaign or sub-campaigninclude a Hang-up rate rule, which represents a number of incidents thatthe call center hangs up on recipients while the recipient is still onhold. In this example, the user has set a default that pauses outboundcalling whenever the call center hangs up on 3 of the last 20 inboundcallers (15%). Representative rule parameters for a Bad number rate anddirect connect fail rate are also provided, once again by example only.The Bad number rate is a number of incidents the system detects a bad orinvalid number when attempting to connect to the call center, and thedirect connect fail rate comprises an aggregate set of failures whenattempting to connect to the call center.

As also illustrated in FIG. 3, if a Notify option is checked for a givenrule, an email (or other) notification is sent when the threshold forthat rule is reached. To enable a rule, the user selects a checkbox forthe rule located to the left of the rule name. The user can click theSave Changes to Account button to save the rules as a default set.

It is now assumed that a campaign or sub-campaign for a particularbusiness entity that has specified a set of rules is in progress. Thebusiness entity user can then use the web interface to monitor theprogress of issues that have been specified by these rules. FIG. 4illustrates a representative web page 400 that is served to the businessentity user by the service provider infrastructure. Once again, theparticular layout and format of the page is not meant to be taken tolimit the scope of the present invention. As noted above, the managementrules (e.g., specified using the GUI in FIG. 3) cause the system to takecertain actions in real-time, based on campaign performance as measuredindirectly, namely, through the various rules that have been described.The service provider adjusts calling rates or suspends the campaign orsub-campaign, as the case may be, by applying one or more call centerperformance metrics (Hold Time, Contact abandoned rate, No Answer rate,Error rate, Busy rate, Hang up rate, Bad Number rate, Direct connectfail rate), as opposed to having actual ACD statistics. As described,the management rules can increase and decrease the flow of callsdepending upon various behaviors or, in some cases, can suspend thecampaign.

The web page 400 displays active issues. An issue is considered to beactive if the system has adjusted the calling rate or paused callsaltogether within a given past time period (e.g., 15 minutes) becausethe threshold for that issue's rule has been reached or exceeded. Anissue may also be considered active if there is any system activity fora given issue, e.g., if there is a single incident of a direct connectfail rate the page will display a “1” next to that issue. The checks tothe left of the issue indicate that a rule has been enabled for theparticular issue; likewise, if a rule is not enabled, preferably therewill not be a check displayed next to the issue.

In this example screen, preferably there are two categories of Activeissues:

-   -   Adjust Call Rate—issues for which the system action is to adjust        the calling rate. Under the Status for Adjust Call Rate, a green        or a yellow light is displayed for each issue.    -   Pause Call Rate—issues for which the system action is to pause a        sub-campaign. Under the Status for Pause Sub-Campaign, a green        or red light is displayed for each issue.

Preferably, yellow or red lights are also displayed under Status while asub-campaign is running so that the user can quickly identify if thereis an issue with a sub-campaign. As can be seen, in this example, thereare four column headings on the display tab, which are explained below:

Issue The specific issue's rule that caused the calling rate to beadjusted. Status Shows whether the issue is currently in a green,yellow, or red state of alert (preferably updated in real time). Green -calls are currently within the pre-established threshold Yellow - thesystem is actively managing the call rate (e.g., has adjusted thecalling rate downward in response to the rule's threshold beingexceeded, or is adjusting it upward following some downward adjustment)Red - the threshold has been exceeded and the sub-campaign has beenpaused. Although the traffic light display icon metaphor is preferred,other display icons (e.g., having first, second and third states) can beused Actual The actual number of calls that encountered an issue, as anumeric value and as a percentage of total calls. Preferably, apercentage is calculated as a number of actual incidents divided by anumber of direct connect attempts. Threshold The threshold that was setfor the issue's rule. If an issue has been in a normal state for morethan a given time period (e.g., 15 minutes), preferably the ruledisappears from this page. Preferably, this information does not changeunless the settings for the rule change.

Preferably, Reset and Resume links may appear on the page if the systemhas adjusted the calling rate in reaction to a rule surpassing itsthreshold. If the Reset link appears to the right of Adjust Call Rate,it indicates the calling rate has been adjusted: if the Resume linkappears to the right of Pause Sub-Campaign, it indicates the calls havebeen paused. When the user selects either Reset or Resume, the issueclears and, in the case of Resume, calls resume. Also, if calls havebeen paused by the system, the user can click Resume on the page toresume calling.

If the user desires to view not only which issues have been recentlyactive but all issues, he or she can click Show All Issues. In suchcase, preferably the text “Show All Issues” changes to “Hide InactiveIssues.” FIG. 5 illustrates a representative Show All Issues page.

The system preferably adjusts outbound call rates on asub-campaign-by-sub-campaign basis. The particular algorithm used toadjust an outbound call rate may vary, but one representative techniquedetermines a target dispatch rate by taking into consideration suchfactors as a percentage of recipients who are likely to elect to connectto the call center, a service time of those recipients who do connect tothe call center, and the service time of those recipients who do notconnect to the call center. These values may be calculated over a timewindow. The target dispatch rate may then be calculated periodicallybased on a then-current target dispatch rate and a number of agentscurrently available to the system.

As previously noted, the hardware and software systems in which theinvention is illustrated are merely representative. The invention may bepracticed, typically in software, on one or more machines. Generalizing,a machine typically comprises commodity hardware and software, storage(e.g., disks, disk arrays, and the like) and memory (RAM, ROM, and thelike). The particular machines used in the network are not a limitationof the present invention. A given machine includes network interfacesand software to connect the machine to a network in the usual manner. Asillustrated in FIG. 1, the present invention may be implemented as amanaged service (e.g., in an ASP model) using the illustrated set ofmachines, which are connected or connectable to one or more networks.More generally, the service is provided by an operator using a set ofone or more computing-related entities (systems, machines, processes,programs, libraries, functions, or the like) that together facilitate orprovide the inventive functionality described above. In a typicalimplementation, the service comprises a set of one or more computers. Arepresentative machine is a network-based server running commodity (e.g.Pentium-class) hardware, an operating system (e.g., Linux, Windows,OS-X, or the like), an application runtime environment (e.g., Java,.ASP), and a set of applications or processes (e.g., Java applets orservlets, linkable libraries, native code, or the like, depending onplatform), that provide the functionality of a given system orsubsystem. As described, the service may be implemented in a standaloneserver, or across a distributed set of machines. Typically, a serverconnects to the publicly-routable Internet, a corporate intranet, aprivate network, or any combination thereof, depending on the desiredimplementation environment.

Having described our invention, what we now claim is set forth below.

1-4. (canceled)
 5. Apparatus, comprising: a set of machines thatcomprise a service provider infrastructure, each machine comprising aprocessor, and computer memory holding program instructions that areexecuted by the processor, the service provider infrastructure beingshared by a plurality of business entities that create distinctinteractive communications campaigns; one or more web servers executingon the machines and through which first and second business entitieseach creates and manages an interactive communications campaign, eachcampaign including a set of one more rules that may be triggered duringthe campaign; a telephony server executing on one of the machines toinitiate outbound calls to recipients over a plurality of voiceconnections during the campaign for a respective one of the businessentities, wherein a recipient of an outbound call initiated by thetelephony server is afforded an option to connect, via a voiceconnection through the telephony server, to a third party contact centerhaving an automatic call distributor (ACD); and an application serverexecuting on one of the machines (i) to monitor the voice connectionsthrough the telephony server as the campaign for a respective one of thebusiness entities is executed to infer a content center performancemetric, wherein the contact center performance metric is inferredwithout requiring a direct data connection from the third party contactcenter ACD, (ii) to evaluate the content center performance metric todetermine whether a rule from the set of one or more rules has beentriggered, (iii) to take a given action if the rule has been triggered,and (iv) to provide information identifying the rule, together with astatus of the given campaign; at least one of the web servers beingfurther adapted to serve a web page to the respective business entity,the web page identifying the status of the campaign as determined by theapplication server.
 6. The apparatus as described in claim 5, whereinthe status is a display icon having at least first and second states. 7.The apparatus as described in claim 6, wherein, with respect to a givencontact center performance metric, the first state indicates that a rulefrom the set of rules has been triggered, and the second state indicatesthat a rule has been triggered that has caused an adjustment to thecampaign.
 8. The apparatus as described in claim 5, wherein theapplication server updates the information identifying the rule and thestatus of a campaign.
 9. An apparatus, comprising: a set of machinesthat comprise a network-accessible service infrastructure, each machinecomprising a processor, and computer memory holding program instructionsthat are executed by the processor, the service infrastructure beingshared by a plurality of entities that use the service infrastructure tocreate distinct interactive campaigns; one or more web servers executingon the machines and through which first and second entities each createsand manages an interactive campaign; a telephony server executing on oneof the machines to initiate outbound calls to recipients during aninteractive campaign, wherein a recipient of an outbound call initiatedby the telephony server is afforded an option to connect, via a voiceconnection through the telephony server, to a contact center; and anapplication server executing on one of the machines (i) to monitor thevoice connections through the telephony server as the interactivecampaign is executed to infer a content center performance metric,wherein the contact center performance metric is inferred withoutrequiring a direct connection from the third party contact center, (ii)to evaluate the content center performance metric, and (iii) to provideinformation identifying a status of the given campaign based at least inpart on the contact center performance metric; at least one of the webservers serving a page identifying the status of the campaign asdetermined by the application server.
 10. The apparatus as described inclaim 9 wherein the contact center is a third party contact center. 11.The apparatus as described in claim 9 wherein the recipients arecustomers of an entity.
 12. The apparatus as described in claim 9wherein the application server evaluates the content center performancemetric to determine whether a rule from a set of one or more rules hasbeen triggered.
 13. The apparatus as described in claim 12 wherein theapplication server takes a given action if the rule has been triggered.14. The apparatus as described in claim 13 wherein the given actioncauses an adjustment to the interactive campaign.
 15. An apparatus,comprising: a set of machines that comprise a network-accessible serviceinfrastructure, each machine comprising a processor, and computer memoryholding program instructions that are executed by the processor, theservice infrastructure being shared by a plurality of entities that usethe service infrastructure to create distinct interactive campaigns; oneor more servers of a first type executing on the machines and throughwhich first and second entities each creates and manages an interactivecampaign; a server of a second type executing on one of the machines toinitiate outbound calls to recipients during an interactive campaign,wherein a recipient of an outbound call initiated by the server of thesecond type is afforded an option to connect, via a voice connectionthrough the server, to a contact center; and a server of a third typeexecuting on one of the machines (i) to monitor the voice connectionsthrough the server of the second type as the interactive campaign isexecuted to infer a content center performance metric, wherein thecontact center performance metric is inferred without requiring a directconnection from the third party contact center, (ii) to evaluate thecontent center performance metric, and (iii) to provide informationidentifying a status of the given campaign based at least in part on thecontact center performance metric; at least one of the servers of thefirst type serving a page identifying the status of the campaign asdetermined by the server of the second type.
 16. The apparatus asdescribed in claim 15 wherein the server of the first type is a webserver, and server of the second type is a telephony server, and theserver of the third type is an application server.